free. free. free. free. free media. president. legislation russian public opinion with the authorities. a. shopping spree. stores are flooded by customers two weeks after a tragic school shooting in connecticut. plus. the. food to nasty weather we look at why many britons including.

in the near future. it's a pleasure to have you with us today here on. live from the russian capital. that president putin has signed off on a bill aimed at u.s. citizens accused of abusing the human rights of russians includes a ban on americans adopting russian children and the restrictions came about after washington. russian officials are involved in a rights violations. earlier the president said he saw no reasons why the bill shouldn't be passed and signed it on the next day after the final draft got into his office and now starting from the first of january american

citizens suspected off while ations off the rights of russian citizens will be banned from entering russia the bill also introduces financial sanctions and restrictions on n.g.o.s and non commercial organizations with foreign sponsors and also the article which has been more stocked about the ban for all americans to adopt russian children for the past few weeks russian society and even the political elite have been split over the issue and there have been many cases of abuse of russian children and sometimes even deaths after they're brought to the united states and russian president has been saying that this bill is not aimed against people or children but it's aimed against the american system due to a lack of a proper legal reaction from american authorities to these cases including the a lack of heavy jail sentences and other problem is that russian officials are often not even able to monitor what happens to russian children after they're brought to the u.s. one of the reasons behind so much debate around the ban is also that many people

are concerned with the state of orphanages in russia and along with signing this bill the president also released aimed at improving the lives of orphans in the country lawmakers from the beginning have been saying that this is a response to the magnitsky act bans passed recently by american lawmakers city game was a russian war of words for foreign investment funds he was suspected of money laundering but died in prison before a court could make a decision on his case is seen by many in the west especially united states as a victim of various human rights violations and. act basically gives the green light for sanctioning a russian official suspected in the us of being connected with human rights violations in moscow by me. officials it's seen as another russian law because it's really not clear on what grounds this black list of names is is being put together and also we know that some of the names are going to be classified altogether. or

you go to prison or reporting right now is the investigation continues into the death of sort of the magnitsky in prison a moscow court has acquitted a jailed doctor of negligence leading to loss of life russia's presidential council on human rights concluded that magnitsky had been severely beaten and denied medical treatment while he was held in prison but the judge said she found no evidence that the doctor's actions caused the lawyers death by thinks he's a family has promised to appeal the ruling. critics of the new adoption ban say it harms russian orphans chances of a better future but a former director of the american adoption congress he told us here about see that ultimately tracking how russian children are being treated in the u.s. is all but impossible. a lot of the cases have gotten very very light sentences for the caretakers whether forster or adoptive of russian

children here in the united states but we certainly have no idea how many children are enduring abuses surviving abuses of all kinds the children that died at the hands of their adoptive parents were tortured in some horrendous ways they were sexually abused they were burnt they were starved they were caged ever any conceivable kind of torture one human being could inflict on another was done to these children so these were the parents that were caught and prosecuted nineteen how many more are there is there's absolutely no way of knowing the united states has no system of follow up on adoptions once an adoption is finalized the child is considered as if born to that family are you watching the gun sales of skyrocketed in the u.s.

it's after barack obama urged a ban on some firearms in the wake of the sandy hook school massacre and gun h. if you can explain so that is ultimately backfired on the president about two weeks ago actually on this particular wall here. it's four rows down four rows across. with everything going on in politics right now with the possible ban and everything everyone is floating in. purchasing right away gun stores all across the u.s. are reporting record sales just two weeks after the tragic shooting at the elementary school in newtown americans are scrambling to buy the same type of weapon that adam lanza used in the connecticut shooting plus high capacity magazine . panic buying triggered out of fear that the white house is out to ban the weapons but this time the words need to lead to action no a r fifteen for this customer all

sold out at the store while prices on line have gone through the roof have been going for a thousand and fifty eight hundred eight hundred dollars to twenty five hundred three thousand dollars even in some cases it's just the most amazing gun buying spree i've ever seen so many gun retailers now quite cynically refer to feed ministrations ben talk as the obama gun stimulus that's how good it's been for their business so how do you go from a president with a tough gun control agenda to someone gun dealers call the greatest gun salesman in america manufacturers of semi-automatic rifles report that their market has grown thirty percent of the last four years states like north carolina iowa and you have seen a one hundred percent increase in gun sales over the same period in the wake of the tragedy in newtown one of the country's biggest ammunition suppliers said they sold more than three years worth of magazines in just three days. although president

obama himself has so far failed to act on his pledge to ban assault weapons his words have certainly provoked action just not the type you may have wanted or someone they say is against her. going to great job for us. maybe there should be a third term in order to sell even more weapons many dealers hype up the gone apocalypse scenario so the banks and their government. to start not only started. but many of them don't actually see any drastic changes happening any time soon after all any significant gun control measures enough that in the past ultimately clashed with the second amendment of the constitution and were subsequently scrapped. i'm going to check out. and i want a group in utah has come up with their own unique way to prevent more shootings by giving more guns to teachers in schools that the gun rights advocates have decided

to launch shooting lessons for teachers in case of an emergency you can get your comment on this by going to teach dot com. ok wow. this is iran is holding a fresh round of naval drills in the strait of hormuz one of the world's busiest oil routes the six day war games come as the west builds up pressure on iran over its nuclear program and amid speculations of a war professor mohammad marandi from the university of tehran says he doesn't think iranians expect any soon time battle. in the sense that western countries are

brutal and civilized enough to carry out an attack i think that that's clear to the iranians the fact that western countries are imposing sanctions and embargo on it on iran they're trying to prevent iran from even importing and exporting medicine and food stuffs by blocking the central bank and there are shortages of some medicines right now in iran and people have died so the fact that the western countries are willing to kill ordinary people and to make people suffer i think makes it clear that the idea of carrying out an attack on iran is something that they would contemplate if they could but i think on the other hand the iranians believe that western countries are much weaker today than they ever were before the defeat in iraq and afghanistan the setbacks in. that israel had in lebanon and gaza make as well as the economic crisis in europe and north america make it highly unlikely but the iranians have prepared themselves and i think that itself has been

a deterrent to war so the i think in general the iranians feel that a military assault on iran aggression would be highly unlikely. so i still ahead this hour here on our two washington's financial stability is close to the edge of the united states moves closer to the fiscal cliff congress and the president still struggling to find common ground. syria dives deeper into conflict we take a look at the key developments in the civil war over the last year that. recalled later this hour. a growing number of wealthy britons plan to wave goodbye to the u.k. over the next two years and move their lives and money elsewhere more than a fifth of the country's millionaires are considering emigrating that's according to lloyd's international bank artie's borger explains what exactly is making the rich luxury like. blame the dismal weather that's reportedly the

overwhelming reason for why one in five british million as a considering upping sticks and leaving the country now those reasons are followed closely by the high rate of crime in the u.k. and anti social behavior and then another reason why they might want to leave is the high cost of living here in the u.k. and only in fourth place to my why they might might want to leave is the high rate of personal taxation now where are they going well top of the list of destinations is france it's nearby and it's warmer weather and same goes for spain which is the other place where they're all thinking of flocking to followed by the usa now we didn't manage to track down any million as but we hit the streets of london to talk to the ordinary londoners to ask whether they were considering upping sticks and leaving as well and it looks like most of them agree with the millionaires so let's take a listen to what they told us you consider leaving the u.k. . one reason to climb up first the second the dark.

would you consider leaving the u.k. and leaving somewhere else i'm going to do really what are the reasons my wife. my children but also the expense here looks like the middle class professionals are the ones who are actually packing their bags and leaving a recent report by the home office said that more and more middle class with professionals are actually packing their bags and opting to continue their careers elsewhere and for them the main reason is the high rate of personal taxation so it's the millionaires are the ones that don't like the rain then is the middle class professionals the senior managers the academics the scientists that are actually continuing their careers abroad and a lot of business leaders are saying that if the high rate of personal taxation isn't cut it's going to lead to a brain drain for the u.k.

in the future so something that's very worrying for politicians to consider here. back with more news in just a sack. if you're from my generation or younger and you were born into the one percent then i bet you have a lot of college debt i sure do you know the deal used to be that you paid a significant amount for education but in turn that gave you a much higher salary later but now the system works in reverse many young americans studied very hard to not make any money at all around nine percent of americans with student loans have defaulted and at least nine but maybe up to eighteen percent are ninety days late with their payments given the situation the people at u.c. berkeley were nice enough to give away a million dollars in scholarships for everyone everyone that's an illegal immigrant

yeah that's right if you're born in america then pay till you die but jump the border and enjoy the red carpet education treatment the people who will be getting the scholarships are mostly the children of illegal immigrants who spent many of their formative years in america and yeah i could see the logic that could be hard for them to get an education wonder when they aren't citizens but they came into the country illegally it isn't taxpayers jobs to help them but wait berkeley is a private institution so i guess they can give out the money to whoever they want whenever they want however they want but berkeley management if you're watching this i would really appreciate if you chose some financial mercy to american citizens it isn't like they don't need the help but that's just my opinion.

this is with me wrong america is sliding ever closer to what has become known as the fiscal cliff with barack obama hosting another last minute meeting for weeks republicans and democrats have been trying to reach a deal on how to reduce the deficit if they don't though billions of dollars in tax hikes come into effect on january the first a journalist on the bar says it's not the deadlock that's the worry but rather

what's already been agreed upon. the real problem in my eyes is not the fact that they can't reach an agreement but rather that they have reached an agreement on many fundamental things the grievance they have reached is that neither of them are going to advocate so put more money in the hands of working people they have no problem whatsoever removing a trillion dollars or two trillion dollars from the economy and delivering it to the bankers they did that inside of twenty days back in two thousand and eight and again in two thousand and nine was very little discussion. everyone agrees on both sides of the aisle that sums sort of the reduction in benefits from social security and medicare is inevitable quote unquote well you know the rest of us don't believe that it's inevitable or even that it's necessary and certainly not that it's that it's not desirable yet the agreement between the democrats and republicans on these fundamental issues is in my mind more important than their disagreement the

posturing that they're doing for the media basically to try to blame each other for the you know going over the so-called cliff so that for one and while the well it's economic recovery is held hostage by the talks in washington and the public's seen thing in europe's top economy as we report on what's getting so upset that puts together the government that is a grand the plan that's just a sign. that the syrian government to act on statements that it's ready to talk to opponents speaking to journalists foreign minister sergey lavrov outlined the russian view on how the conflict should be resolved. we actively encourage the syrian leadership to make as concrete as possible is declared readiness for dialog with the opposition you also asking when will the international community make up their minds that bashar assad should go with all due respect to the international community is the

syrian people who should make that decision and the international community should not be instigating one of the sides to continue bloodshed or set any preconditions they should instead encourage all the fighting size to follow the geneva statements which set conditions for the syrians themselves getting all political ethnic and religious groups got to agree on which kind of state they want to live in. also criticized the deep reluctance of syria's key opposition group back and by the west to make any concessions in the civil standoff but he stressed that russia is ready to hold talks with the group when the push for a diplomatic solution to the syrian crisis has dragged on for nearly two years reports of fresh bloodshed almost coming in every day and that's what we're focusing on today in our series on the events that twenty shaped twenty.

it became fairly apparent after a massive regional arab spring and in the wake of that the next contact of a pro-democracy movement and a revolution or civil war was not what was happening in syria when you see some politicians there and the media circus is just. cracking down on people you think but what about the other guy on top of the politics and diplomacy the fact that are simply too important to ignore. i remember i was a training session of the syrian football team and the coach was very angry with how his players were practicing he was shouting he was swearing from time to time and then i moved my head like this just like this and i saw two helicopters flying at very low altitude and firing were at each other the hotel restaurant and close to us there was

a group for rich syrians playing cards from smoking living life as usual and just before that as me and my colleagues were live in the local t.v. station there was an almost lost a few blocks away most likely terror attack most likely people have been killed and what struck me was the coexistence of those two. reality the reality of death and the relatively most interesting interaction for me with assad happened before and after the interview obviously and that's often the case. i asked him if he's afraid. he said no. he said no i'm not afraid that's a moment when the you believe the person or not and the only reason you know if he's right or wrong is international i think series becoming the next iraq it's a country that is totally. and. like in the case of iraq.

of course i'm much more used to catch up with. a private christmas party. this is the international monetary fund raising. germany's reported austerity plans

which are proposed to come into force after next year's elections and the measures will apparently include. tax hikes and welfare cuts that could bring europe to a grinding halt according to. reports. they're top of the european tree but don't think germans feel that they have nothing to grumble about v.f. un back in the park to share measuring public mood by telephone and face to face through thousands of interviews we've got a pretty good idea of what the people are thinking stats boffins have been gauging the country's mood to come up with the biggest moans of the year from your average german at number five it's national debt it's better to give than to receive at this time of year but germans festive spirit ran out long ago over chancellor merkel being a little too generous and bailing out countries like greece especially when it's

their money at four is climate change the mayan world ending prophecy may have turned out to be hocus pocus but germans remain seriously concerned about keeping mother earth ticking over for as long as possible number three is a very twenty first century problem getting ripped off online as we bank in shop on the web more than ever before the fear for germans is that someone else's netting their details on their cash poverty came in second towards the end of the year it was revealed that around a quarter of europeans are at risk of living below the breadline germans watch with despair at what's happening to the greeks and spanish images they struggle to shake from their minds but the biggest worry for germans in twenty twelve was. rising prices costs are rocketing everywhere from food to fuel and next year looks set to

get even more pricey germany is a world leader in using renewable energy and over the coming year it's the consumer who will be paying to keep it that way with a shocking fifty percent increase in the subsidy paid towards renewable energy sources so that's what troubled germans this year but what are their fears for the future but i'm concerned maybe to find a good job because i want to do something different trying to thirteen minutes on sure what is happening in an economical crisis perhaps the euro is having another crisis but i actually love berlin that's why i want to stay here but if i can't find a job here so will have to try to get somewhere else i worry about everything job prices everything is going down the hill the people i concerned about job security that they just that yeah the contracts are not secure in our their firm's companies

no longer have enough money and that people are just get fired. as with most situations in life when you ask people what their concerns are or what they want to see changed you do have to be prepared that their answers might not be exactly what you want to hear really one of the off the top around us was to legalize soft drugs i don't think legalizing soft trucks is one of the most immediate concerns we. should have split titian's in two thousand and thirteen so what will germans be concerned about at the end of twenty thirteen even though they've less to worry about than most europeans it's unlikely that worries over spending its home on other countries will disappear within twelve months peter all of a r.t. . and a capital account in just a second. looking

at some dogs you simply do not believe they come speak and goodness how they can wrong oh. it's an international sled dog race with those driving the dogs. coming from as far away as australia canada and the u.s. i come to russia and everybody is so very friendly they welcomed me with open arms and the scenery is so beautiful it's very much like a laska and so i felt at home the first sled dog was brought here from australia now let's try and come to this remote russian village to take part in the race it's not surprising they love it this trail are amazing but even more amazing is the story of how racing

first started here atoll it wasn't the top of sled dog racing who set the trail of place but a nun and for orphans who brought their dia to life. five years ago mother put a scare of a bill to dog kennel in the village kids from the local open h. came around to take care of the dogs and one day they state their life might seem extreme to some the boys wake up at six to feed the dogs before school in the evening they spend up to three hours training their full legged friends but smother her scare also encourages her kids to become depth hands on the computer and internet the boys who regularly update their website and they're in touch with the business model twenty four seven on the phone each summer but children are the most important thing my own interests not play any rule any more and regardless of whether parsky has huskies window race or not she hopes the competition will take place in the village next year. but called these dogs and the children it really is

not the weaning but truly just the taking part that counts. good afternoon love of the capital account i'm lauren lyster here in washington d.c. these are your headlines for thursday december twentieth two thousand and twelve in the u.s. as the fiscal cliff approaches reuters reports republicans are aiming to vote today in the house on a plan which obama probably says he would veto meanwhile bitch has warned the u.s. could lose its aaa credit rating if washington doesn't get a deal to treat what we call economy now this may all feel like deja vu and maybe it will all turn out fine maybe it won't though where you want to place your bets we'll talk to the daily reckoning.